The Ausangate Trek

"It´s a good thing that you don´t get used to this kind of beauty."
~Tzippy Shamir

Thursday, October 2nd to Monday, October 6th 2008

After a few days in Cuzco I was starting to feel I´m beginning to rot. Don´t get me wrong I could use the rest after all the trekking in Huaraz and the hectic run through coastal Peru, but somehow I felt that if I won´t do something I will get stuck in the city itself like many others I met at my hotel - and I shuddered at the thought. Fortunately I got an offer from Benjamin, Tzippy and Arishai who I met at Ica and again at Cuzco to join them for the Ausangate circuit. The plan was to rest on Saturday making the circuit 6 days long instead of the usual 5 which was fine by me. Another couple - Alon and Tamar joined us setting our final number to 6. Looking back the whole experience looks a little surreal: I came with very low expectations after the views of the more famous previous treks, we went on a 6 days trek instead of 5 and ended up doing it in 5, a 10 years boy led us most of the way, we walked most of the trail although it was suppose to be a horseback trek and the actual route we followed was not the one we originally planed... but we had a good guide, a good group, amazing views and great weather making the Ausangate trek one of the best so far.

On Thursday morning we got up early and took a bus ride with a guy from the agency who arranged the trek for us to the small town of Tinqui. The town itself was very colorful with a small market on the main street. We were introduced to our guide Enrica who invited us to sit in a small courtyard and went to get organized. We walked the streets of Tinqui for a short while until it started to rain and we hurried to the safety of the courtyard. Enrica came back, gave us an avocado sandwich lunch and told us that we will go to first destination, a village called Pachanta, by a small van rather than by horseback. Although we were a little surprised the heavy rain that kept falling made us agree with this decision. We arrived to Pachanta at around 16:00 and settled into a small stone house with a table on the first floor and a ladder that led to a second floor with mattresses on a wooden floor - this was our accommodations for the night. We sat around the small table and played cards to a candle light while the rain kept falling outside. At some point Enrica got in and started to cook our dinner on a portable stove heating up the small stone room. We ate our dinner and kept on playing cards until we decided it´s time to call it a day and retired to our beds.

We woke to a cold but clear morning and as we got out we saw the steam rising from the local hot springs. The small stream near our house was actually partially fed by the hot water so we could wash our faces in warm water. After breakfast we wanted to set out as early as possible since we had a long day, but Enrica was not ready with the horses yet. At some point he got tired with us bothering him and he send us with his 10 years old boy Romario to start walking saying he will catch us up with the horses in 20 minutes. In the coming days this will be the norm we walked with Romario when we were on foot and with Enrica when we mounted the horses. We walked for 20 minutes and stopped but Enrica and the horses were still not anywhere in sight. I used the time practice climbing on a big rock while we waited. When Enrica finally arrived we questioned him a little about the route since it didn´t look like what the agency explained and found out that we are going to do the trek from the opposite direction since Enrica wanted us to rest at a warmer campsite on Saturday. The horses also looked more like mules than horses and we started to have doubts... We mounted our horses and started walking up a moderately steep path that led to the 5000m Q`ampa pass. After about 1 hour we started to enjoy the view of the snowy mountains on both our side and started to get glimpses of the Qomerqocha lake up ahead and our fears melted in the warm morning sun. We continued for another 2-3 hours on horseback until we stopped for lunch at a beautiful spot before the pass. Since we felt sorry for the horses and our asses were soar from the long ride we continued by foot crossing the pass after about one hour of walking enjoying the great view around us. We kept descending by foot under the guidance of Romario into the green Rio Q'ampa valley for 2-3 more hours and decided to setup camp near the river and not risk walking in the dark for the stone house where we planned to stay on Saturday.

We woke up late to a beautiful Saturday morning and found that local Alpaca and Llama herds moved to the meadows around us. We spend the morning resting and reading on blankets by the river on the soft grass until we decided to move to the stone house some hour and half of walking away to find better shelter in the coming cold night. We arrived to our lodging around 16:30 finding another simple mud brick house with a single floor divided into sleeping and eating areas. The sleeping area was made from one big bed with straw filled mattress and two other smaller beds. The biting cold made us decide that we better share the big bed and our body heat. As we waited for dinner it got colder and colder and I was happy when I went to sleep in the warm sleeping bag.

We started the morning climbing the twisty path to the 5200m Palomoni pass - the highest so far I climbed in Peru. When Enrica caught up with us with the horses about 40 minutes later we decided to complete the pass on foot. At one point we stopped on a small rocky ledge and sat down to enjoy the view of the impressive Ausanagate mountain. Shortly after we sat we heard a loud thundering noise and a huge snow avalanche just manifested itself before us. We felt tiny as the huge mountain slope just collapsed down creating an amazing snow cloud in the valley below us. The Pass itself was also amazing. The Huayhuash veterans amongst us agreed that it was one of the best even when compared to that legendary trek. The snowy mountains and the 360 degrees panorama of the colorful Cordillera Vilcanota with a turquoise lagoon below us made us stay at the windy cold pass for almost an hour. As we descended on foot to the lagoon below us and got a better view of the glacier and waterfall who fed it, the comparison to the views of Huaraz came up - we decided that you can´t compare the beauty but we are lucky that we got to see them both. Near the small lagoon Enrica insisted that we will mount the horses for the climb to the 4900m Apuchata pass. The trail to the pass was an unimpressive simple rocky path but from the top we had good view of 3 lagoons, one turquoise, one green and one red. We ate our lunch next to the red lagoon and continued by food along the shores of the turquoise one where the trail left the valley and started climbing the shoulder of the Ausangate were we made our camp on a small ridge near a small black lagoon at roughly 4500m.

We woke up to a white morning. It snowed during the night and the entire region was covered with a thin white blanket. We played around in the snow who melted fast in the morning sun and set out on foot to cross the Arapa pass. On the way Benjamin convinced Enrica, who by now proved himself to be a great guide together with his son Romario who we started to called "the little man", to catch fresh fishes for dinner. we crossed the pass and descended on foot through a green valley to the village of Upis where Enrica asked us to mount to horses again since he feared that rain is coming. We rode for 3 hours through the green low hills until we arrived back to Pachanta again. We moved into a better lodge with real beds and set out immediately for the hot springs. The water were hot and welcoming and it was great to feel the warmth and clean ourselves after 4 and half days in the cold mountains. The water was so hot that we didn´t care that it started to rain again. As we walked back to the lodge, clean and with fresh clothes, we heard a disturbing rummer: the road from Tinqui to Cuzco is going to closed for 3 days starting from tomorrow. The news made us change our plans and we canceled our fish dinner, ate a quick lunch, said goodbye to Enrica´s family and particularly Romario and set out on horseback to catch the last bus to Cuzco. We rode for 1 and a half hours through the rain until we boarded a bus with another group who was in Pachanta with us. The 4 hours ride to Cuzco was tiring and I´m still ashamed by the behaviour of the group who shared the bus with us but we got to Cuzco late at night before the road closed after a very enjoyable 5 days trek.